At work this week, I was wondering what to write about ... and then realised that work itself would be something to talk about. Namely my first jobs ... and possibly Hubby's first jobs! They have no bearing on where we ended up working at all - but they have influenced us!
My first job was working in Woolworths on Saturdays - guarding the fur coats! THE most boring job in the world: hanging around the rack containing half a dozen, not hugely expensive (we are talking Woollies after all!), rabbit fur coats: to make sure that nobody tried them on and walked out of the store! Do I have a fur coat now? No!!
My second Saturday job was in British Home Stores (BHS) working in the homewares department, where I learnt to use a till that didn't add up very well ... if someone came to me wanting to buy 15 items at 99p, I was supposed to enter 99p fifteen times! Luckily my co-worker showed me the quick way to do this and honed my mental arithmetic skills to boot - £15 less 15p i.e. £14.85 is a LOT quicker and more accurate to key in than 99p, 99p, 99p, 99p, ... My colleague also taught me how to fold (tea-)towels for display on the shelves so that there were no visible edges. Do I still fold towels this way? YES!
I then worked as a shelf-filler, and eventually on the tills, at Waitrose - their tills did a much better job of adding up than the BHS ones ... do I still shop there? Sometimes :D
Now Hubby had various jobs before he started down his final career path, but the job that has left him with a legacy is the one in the dairy - producing yoghurt. He won't eat it! Not because he dislikes it. Not because he's allergic to it. But because "Phil" used to flick his bogies into the mix!!! I somehow don't think I'll be doing a page about that, do you?!
More stories here - enjoy!
24 comments:
I won't tell the kids that yoghurt story ... they love it!
I fold all my towels the same way!
Great stories. I fold my towels a certain way because we had very narrow cabinets in the bathroom when I was growing up. If I'm mindlessly folding laundry, I still do it that way too.
That's it, I'm off yoghurt for life now..
I love the stories about your first jobs. I'm kind of envious because I begged my mum to let me take a job in the Co Op during the summer holidays and she wouldn't! Your Woolworths story reminded me of my friends who worked in the Lingerie Dept of our one big Dept store. They had to learn how to measure properly.
Thanks for joining in Storytelling Sunday Jemma. I hope that lad of yours in continuing to recover
I had a Saturday job in Woolworth too, on the deli counter!! Thankfully my next one was in the Library which was a lot less manic.
Great story, I loved my summer jobs, we are a seaside town so I could and would work from dawn til dusk, save all my pennies and then take a trip to the big smoke to buy fashion and stuff that our town did not sell!
Yuck to the bogie story, funnily enough my first job was in a dairy too, working in the labs, trying to prevent contaminated food going out!!
My first jobs were in shops as well...a holiday job in a supermarket with the boss from hell...today he'd be sacked for bullying, sexual discrimination, racism....and a whole lot more!!!!
eugh...you left the punch line right to the end.
Ewww!! Not sure I'll look at yoghurt in the same way again!
So SOOOO glad I use Easiyo to make my own yogurt. I will NEVER buy another one from a shop ever!!
mmm I can see why yoghurt might not be his favourite thing! I wonder how many peoples first job was in wollies - still miss that store.
I'm not sure I ever want to eat yoghurt again :D
Your towels look so neat a good skill to have learnt.
I have a feeling yoghurt sales may be dropping after we all read this post!
I need to learn your folding technique, my airing cupboard is a disaster area.
And guess what ... I used to have a rabbit fur coat (were they called coney fur or something like that?) but didn't realise they sold them in Woolies!
I worked in BHS too, but it was when they sold food and I was on the fruit counter!I'm trying to forget the yoghurt story
Alison xx
Yuck! Not sure if I fancy yoghurt either now! I like the layout you have done - might have to dig out the photos of me in my Boots and Sainsburys uniforms from when I had a Saturday job and do a layout about those jobs!
Great scrap page - I like your choices of decorative papers - one looks rather like a floor-map of a large shop and the other has those words about living, learning etc.. Very apt!
Your story was such fun and reminded me of my own first jobs. Dad got me a job, when I was 14 1/2, making sandwiches & coffees, sweeping and cleaning, washing dishes etc, in a little snack bar, across the road from his office. We went in there after a visit to the cinema (which was just across the road at that time) and the manager was saying she needed a Saturday person. So Dad got me the job. It was very poorly paid, even by the standards of the day - 9 to 3pm, for £5. But it was pocket money, it was work experience and I loved it! The snack bar was attached through the back, to the family hairdressing salon, so the staff used to come to us for coffees for their clients and also for their lunches. Most of them weren't much older than me - late teens/early 20's and they sort-of took me under their wing and looked after me. I got "life advice" for free (always good!) and free haircuts sometimes too. Also, finishing at 3pm was great, as I had the rest of the day to myself (or for meeting my BF once I finally had one!). When I moved on - to work in McDonalds, once I was 16, a job my friend got for me - my sister took over my old job. The boss was forever telling me how much quicker & more efficient my sister was (it was true - I am a slow-coach!), but I was quite happy. I'm so grateful I had that job - it really got me started in the "grown-up world", but in a fairly gentle way really. And I had a whole fiver a week to spend!
my first job was at a tea shop where i started as a washerupper and then waitress. then i worked in the local supermarket stacking shelves and pricing stock with one of those sticker guns, then i worked the tills,
jo xxx
What a lovely story about all your early jobs - I wish I knew how to fold towels so they looked pretty like that!
PS I love BHS for their homeware section :)
I never worked in a shop but I actually quite fancy it! Some days stacking shelves seems like a perfect job for me, not that I know how to fold towes properly like you! Another appealing reason for working in a store is the 25% discount!!
Great idea for Storytelling Sunday! We probably all have those first jobs we can remember, very much like yours. Glad to have moved on. Thanks for sharing! (and stopping by my blog and leaving a comment!)
Well I'm a huge yogurt fan and this will not deter me from eating it :) Fun stories!
yuck on the yoghurt story - In Sainsbury's I once saw a woman peel back the foil and stick her finger in to taste a couple. Couldn't believe the cheek... told a member of staff so those pots weren't sold on afterwards.
DD is about to start looking for her first 'not working for a family company' job. No easier looking for your dozenth I assured her as I'm also brushing up my cv :sigh:
I don't know if I will be able to eat another yogourt again!
Great idea for the story and so well told! Took me back to all the jobs I've had - pie filler, glass packer (ouch!), pharmacists assistant, straw bailer, you name it.....
Post a Comment